Russian stocks drop on ruble, Brent fall, geopolitics, downgrades

MOSCOW, JAN 20 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks fell on the Brent oil and ruble weakening, rumors of Ukrainian conflict’s escalation, national companies’ downgrade by Fitch and Moody’s, IMF’s decreased forecast of the country’s economy growth and dull expectations that Standard & Poor’s will downgrade the country’s sovereign rating by the end of January, experts said.

The MICEX fell 0.34% to 1,570.97 and the RTS decreased 1.34% to 756.27.

“More than likely, Russian stocks decreased on the falling Brent price to around U.S. $48 per barrel and the ruble weakening against the U.S. dollar and the euro. Some rumors about Ukrainian conflict’s escalation have created additional pressure,” Sergei Filchenkov, analyst at Metropol, said.

The IMF decreased forecasts for global and Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth and this move was not welcomed by market players, Filchenkov said.

Recent downgrades of Russian securities by Fitch and Moody’s ratings agencies remained a negative factor for the stock market as well, he said.

The S&P may downgrade Russia’s sovereign rating to a junk level by the end of January and this decision has continued  exerting negative influence on the market, Andrei Dirgin, head of Alfa-Forex’ analytical department, said.

Below are the MICEX’ five most active stocks on Tuesday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.62	60.80	7.360
Gazprom	-1.59	145.75	4.845
Lukoil	-0.43	2628.70	2.801
Surgutneftegas pref	+4.29	36.40	2.334
Norilsk Nickel	+0.56	9470.00	2.221

(64.9732 rubles – U.S. $1)

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